ALEC's Voter ID Laws Work to Overturn Hundreds of Years of Progressive Moves to Broaden Democracy

Corporations, 1 percenters and Republicans are working to ensure you don’t vote because they honestly believe you don’t count.

Corporations, 1 percenters and Republicans want to take America back. And by that they mean all the way to the 1780s when wealthy white men controlled the nation.

In the intervening 230 or so years, America became increasingly democratic, eventually awarding the vote to white landless males; Quakers, Jews and Catholics; black men; women; Native Americans, and 18-year-olds.

The wealthy are nostalgic for the power they enjoyed when most states limited voting to landed gentry. Republicans are helping them return America to those plutocratic days by passing voter identification laws constraining suffrage by the 99 percent. Country club conservatives are converting voting from a universal right of citizenship to a privilege exclusive to select society members.

A survey by the Brennan Center showed that many Americans, primarily women, do not have proof of citizenship under their current name and certain groups, primarily the poor, elderly and minorities are less likely to possess the documents the new voter ID laws require.

The U.S. Department of Justice barred implementation of voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina after determining that the restrictions would disproportionately limit minority citizens’ access to the polls. Texas and South Carolina are among 16 states with records of discrimination, including voter intimidation and poll taxes. As a result, they are required by the 1965 Voting Rights Act to secure federal approval before changing voting laws.

In March, a court in Wisconsin declared the Badger State’s voter ID law unconstitutional. And the American Civil Liberties Union plans to ask a Pennsylvania court this week to do the same in the Keystone State.

Limiting voter access to the polls is a Republican cause. In 2011 and so far in 2012, nine states passed new or stiffened old voter ID laws. Republican governors preside over all nine states. And in all but one, Republicans completely control the legislatures. Five other states with Republican-controlled legislatures passed voter ID bills last year. These will not take effect, however, because five Democratic governors vetoed them.

Corporations embrace voter ID because democracy is downright annoying to them. The Supreme Court has deemed corporations to be people, which allows them to secretly spend unlimited money on political campaigns. But that doesn’t assure victory for candidates that corporations choose because corporations don’t have the right to actually make the choice – to vote.

The best corporations can do is limit balloting by those likely to vote against corporate-sponsored candidates. That would be voters who historically have favored Democrats.

Voter ID laws disproportionately disenfranchise those voters ­– the poor, minorities and those who actually recall the progressive, popular and successful administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Republican backers of voter ID are completely unconcerned that the laws subjugate these citizens.

Too bad, they say, for grandma, who has voted in every election for the past 65 years but doesn’t have a driver’s license anymore and because she was born at home does not have a birth certificate necessary to get a government-issued photo ID.

Too bad, Republicans say, for the student whose driver’s license address differs from his university address and whose college photo ID does not have an expiration date.

Too bad, the GOP says, for the urban single mother who does not have a driver’s license or the time or money to apply for a birth certificate with a raised seal required to apply at another office for a state identification card.

Voter ID restrictions work for the rich. They’ve got birth certificates and photo driver’s licenses and passports. Or they can send a servant or secretary to apply for the documents. And the more rabble removed from the polls, the more weighty the votes of the wealthy.

In the Halcyon Days of democracy, the unwashed masses were actually urged to vote with slogans like: “If you don’t vote, you don’t count.”

Now corporations, 1 percenters and Republicans are working to ensure you don’t vote because they honestly believe you don’t count.

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DETROIT, Mich. (WJLA/AP) -- Detroit's massive municipal water department, which has been widely criticized for widespread service shutoffs to thousands of customers, drew nationwide attention Thursday on Capitol Hill.
Due to public pressure, the department has temporarily suspended shutoffs for customers who were 60 days or more behind on bills for...

Departing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he will quit Congress altogether in August, ending a once-promising political career in a bid to give his successor a chance for an early turn in office.
Cantor told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he will resign his seat in the House of Representatives effective Aug....

Maude Barlow, Canadian author and national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, with a delegation of water rights advocates brought 260 gallons of water to Detroiters July 24.
Of the 15,000 homes that have had water shut off by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, it is estimated that only 48 percent are...

Columbus, Georgia – The Columbus Police Department, continuing its history of antagonizing the movement to close the US military training camp known as the SOA/WHINSEC (School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), has this year placed unjust, unsafe and unconstitutional restrictions on the annual SOA Watch...

With fewer than a dozen words Monday, President Barack Obama made his most definitive statement to date in favor of District statehood, delighting both loyal supporters and longtime advocates who have questioned his commitment to D.C. voting rights.
During a town hall-style event at a public school in Northwest Washington, Obama...

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is suspending its water shutoffs for 15 days starting today to give residents another chance to prove they are unable to pay their bills.
“In case we have missed someone who has legitimate affordability problems this will allow them to come to us to see...

Opponents of tar sands—the massive bituminous oil deposits in Alberta, Canada with a greenhouse gas impact four times greater than that of standard crude—have inched one step closer to a major victory.
On Wednesday night, the City Council of South Portland, Maine voted 6-1 to pass an early version of an ordinance...

Oh, make you wanna holler
The way they do my life
This ain't livin', this ain't livin'
No, no baby, this ain't livin'
No, no, no, no
--Marvin Gaye, "Inner City Blues"
On July 18 thousands of activists and dozens of organizations will converge on downtown Detroit to protest the privatization of the city’s assets and...

Detroit made international news this month when its municipal water board resumed cutting off water to residents with unpaid bills. With thousands of community members struggling in homes with no running water, local groups reached out (PDF) to the United Nations special rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking...

Charter school operators aren’t the only one’s not being held accountable—a major complaint of the Chicago Teachers Union—it’s the machine politicians angling for electoral support and continued political power.
The War on Independents Wages On
Battle lines were once again drawn between Chicago’s machine democrats and independent democrats when Ald. Toni...

Geraldine Zenteno knew exactly where she wanted to go after graduation.
Researching universities, the 17-year-old T.C. Williams senior had fallen in love with The College of William and Mary. Zenteno wants to pursue a teaching career and the Williamsburg school’s education program ranks among the best in the country, according to...

Empowered by their new majority in the State Senate, Republicans have moved to checkmate Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a monthslong contest over Medicaid, passing a budget that does not include the Medicaid expansion the governor sought and forbidding him from unilaterally expanding the health care program for the poor.
Mr. McAuliffe...

The Democratic Party is already signaling that they won’t be solidly backing Jack Trammell, the Democratic candidate for Eric Cantor’s old seat after Cantor announced that he won’t run as a write-in candidate.
Roll Call reported this morning that, “National Democrats are considering competing for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s House...

In a stunning upset propelled by tea party activists, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was defeated in Tuesday’s congressional primary, with insurgent David Brat delivering an unpredicted and devastating loss to the second most powerful Republican in the House who has widely been touted as a future speaker.
The race...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s (R) environmental record took a turn for the worse last week when he approved rolling back the state’s renewable energy standards. The Buckeye State became the nation’s first to go backwards in this area.
But it’s not the only trouble area for the Ohio governor as it relates to...

Primary season has begun to roll out across the country, including some hotly contested -- and some just plain bizarre -- races for governor, Congress and other local and state offices. One primary of note is in a State Senate race here in New York, and it has already attracted...